Mirza Yawar Baig – Spirit of Ramadan #03
AI: Summary ©
The internet is the 11th of century and the news is the 11th. The speakers emphasize the importance of fasting to transform one's life and reset standards, obeying Allah's words and actions to achieve success, and revisiting goals and identifying the blocks and retardants to achieve success. The importance of knowing one's intentions and setting goals is emphasized, as well as seeking forgiveness and maximizing one's chances of success through hard intentions and reignering oneself.
AI: Summary ©
My brothers and sisters,
this is the second in Ramadan.
I want to remind myself and you
as we have come today, this Jummah
is
the
11th of Ramadan.
One third of Ramadan is over already.
And so it is a good idea to
take stock of what
we gained, what we still need to do,
and make sure that we do it before
the month is gone.
The purpose of fasting is not to fast,
but to transform our lives and put ourselves
on the path of success in this world
and the next.
Ramadan comes to reset our standard, the criteria
of what has value and what doesn't.
When we stay away from even the halal
during the hours of daylight, we are emphasizing
for ourselves
that what makes something good and valuable is
not the thing itself,
but whether
it pleases Allah
or not.
That is the meaning
of a wudia.
The slave has no will of his own.
His will is the will of his creator,
Allah He wants whatever
Allah wants for him
and not only accepts it,
but is pleased with it. This is the
essence of ridaqalqaba,
to be pleased with the destiny that Allah
wrote for us.
That is the first lesson.
Obedience is the essence of Islam.
When when Allah
revealed
Allah
revealed, which means
to Allah alone belongs whatever is in the
heavens and whatever is on the earth.
Whether you reveal what is in your hearts
or conceal it,
Allah will call you to account for it.
He forgives whoever he wills and punishes whoever
he wills,
and Allah
is most capable
of everything.
When this ayah was revealed, and we know
this from the of this ayah,
the Sahaba went to Rasulullah
and
knelt before
him, went down on their knees before him.
And they said,
you Rasulullah
Allah
has said that he will hold us accountable
for our thoughts and desires and emotions.
We have control over our speech and actions,
but we have no control
over our thoughts and desires.
If Allah
punishes us for that, we would be destroyed.
Now ask yourself before I tell you what
happened.
Ask yourself if this doesn't sound like a
reasonable plea,
but see the response of our civil rights
and asylum to this.
His blessed face
became red with anger.
He asked them, he demanded,
will you be like those who when they
received the command of Allah,
they would say, we hear, but we will
not obey.
Obey.
We hear and we obey. Forgive us. Our
rub to you is our return.
The Sabbath did argue.
They didn't make excuses.
They didn't even hesitate.
They obeyed him instantly.
And they
said
Ask what happened then.
Did anything happen?
Nothing happened.
Nothing happened.
And nothing happened for 1 year.
When nothing happened, they did not know
that this was a is that this was
going to be for a period of 1
year and then something will happen.
For 12 months, the Muslims lived with the
knowledge and belief
that Allah
would hold them accountable
even for their thoughts and desires.
That was the toughest
training imaginable
to inculcate the fundamental
and greatest of all virtues, obedience
to Allah in the way of Rasulullah
Not any way you like
in the way of Muhammad sallallahu alaihi salam.
Obey Allah,
the way Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam tells
you to obey Allah.
Then after 12 months, Allah revealed,
The messenger
firmly believes in what has been revealed to
him from his realm
and so do the believers.
Who is saying this? Who is declaring this?
Who is being the witness for Rasulullah and
the Sa'adah? Allah
himself.
Allah
is saying the messenger
firmly believes in what has been revealed to
him
from his rub and so do the believers.
They all believe in Allah
and his malakah, his angels, his books,
his messengers,
And they proclaim and they say,
we make no distinction between any of his
messengers.
And they say,
They say we hear
and we obey,
and we seek forgiveness
of our lord,
of our rob. We seek forgiveness, oh, our
rob, and
to you alone
is the final return.
My brothers and sisters,
the reward
of obedience
is sweet
and honorable.
When they obeyed him,
Allah
honored them
by repeating the words of Rasulullah
as his word.
The Saabah
Alhamdulillah.
The Sahaba repeated the words of Rasulullah Hisr
Rasulullah,
and Allah
12 months later
sent down the very same words
as his word
to be recited in salah
until the end of time.
Allah gave the Sabbath relief
and honored them
by teaching them this beautiful Dua.
Let us reflect on the value of the
dua.
The value of a dua that is taught
by the one who will accept it.
Milk, caffeine.
Allah revealed, which means
Allah does not require of any soul more
than what it can afford. Allah will not
give more than you can bear. Allah will
not give you more difficulties or more trials
than you can bear.
All good will be for its own benefit,
and all evil will be its own loss.
The believers,
may Dua,
our Rab, do not punish us if we
forget or make a mistake.
Our Rab, do not place a burden
on us like the one you placed on
those before us.
Our rub, do not burden us
with what we cannot bear.
Pardon
us, forgive us, and have mercy on us.
You are our only guardian,
so grant us victory over
our enemies, the disbelievers.
Fasting comes to reinforce
this primordial and fundamental message that all virtue,
blessing, and success
starts
with obeying Allah
and making his will
be the guiding light in our lives.
I ask Allah
to illuminate our hearts with his light and
to drive out the darkness of fear and
depression and despair.
As we face a hostile
world
today only because we are Muslim,
it must be clear
that the only source of support and protection
we can always, always, always rely on is
Allah
himself.
So let us repair our bridge to him.
As I mentioned before, the first 10 days
of Ramadan are over, and we have entered
the second.
It is important to take stock
of where we are and what we need
to do to ensure that we finish strong.
Here is what I suggest for all of
us.
Number 1,
revisit the goals we set for Ramadan.
If you did not set any goals, do
so right now,
and check how you are doing with respect
to achieving your goals.
Number 2,
identify the blocks and retardants
to your success and remove them.
They will be time wasters,
pointless conversation about things not in our control,
low achiever friends who will drag you down
to their level,
distractions in your day combined with the inability
to say no.
Number 3,
apply the start, stop, continue standard
and see
what we intended with each
and if we are on track.
What did you intend to start? Did you
start it? What did you intend to stop?
Did you stop it? What do you did
you intend to continue, and are you continuing
that with more consciousness and with more energy?
Remember that metrics
is the evidence of existence.
If you can't measure it, it doesn't
exist. Good intentions are not
followed.
Good good intentions which are not followed
by action are useless.
Number 4,
finally, having identified
all of these things, turn to Allah
and asked for his help to get closer
to him because that is the purpose of
Ramadan.
That is why in the middle of the
ayats related to fasting, Allah
Allah
said, when my slaves ask you, oh, Muhammad
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, about me, I am truly
near.
When they ask me, I'm near.
I respond to their dua, to their prayer
when they call upon me. So let them
obey me and believe in me.
Perhaps they will be guided to the right
way. Every perhaps
in the Quran is at the level of
yakhid.
Definitely, it will happen because Allah
said this.
See the mercy of Allah
that when the slave only asked about it,
Allah
tells Rasoolullah
to assure him that he's near.
When the slave is close to Allah, he
asks Allah for his needs, and Allah
assures the slave
that he will answer his supplication, his dua.
Then Allah shows
him what makes the supplication, the dua, worthy
of being accepted and answered.
Allah
shows us the conditions
for dua to be accepted.
Let them obey me
and believe in me.
Obedience is the key,
and obedience with knowledge of who Allah is
engenders and strengthens
iman belief.
Obedience
is proof of iman.
When the heart of the slave is illuminated
by the nur of the glory and magnificence
of Allah
filled with gratitude to him for all his
blessings. The first and most critical of which
is Tawhid.
Then his immediate
response
is to make istikhaf
and seek forgiveness.
The surest sign of kashatullah
is the frequency of istafar
that a slave makes.
Making stafar is also
a sign of Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's mercy.
Imam Nabi Mahujah, after that he said, when
Allah loves a slave
and wants to do him a favor, he
reminds him of his sins frequently
so that he can seek forgiveness
again and again and again.
Allah
ordered,
walam Anahu
La ilaha illa Allahu
wastawfirlimbikwaleel
mumineenawal
he said, so know well,
oh Muhammad that
there is no god worthy of worship. There
is no deity worthy of worship except Allah.
And seek forgiveness
for your shortcomings and for the sins of
the believing men and women.
For Allah
fully knows your movements
and places of rest, oh people.
Surah Mohammed
is a Madani Surah.
Rasool, sallallahu, and the Sa'aba spent
13
years perfecting their iman in Makkah before going
to Madinah. Yet Allah is
emphasizing
tawhid
for Rasulullah and
ordering him to seek forgiveness for himself and
his followers, the believing men and women,
among whom we ask Allah
to count
us. This is an eye of blessing
and mercy for Rasool Rasoolam
and us, and so let us make Istighfar
after.
And Abi Hurairat, radiAllahu
Anhuqal,
kara Rasool Allah SWALLAM
WALLAhi
Abu Huraira, Raziallahu anhu, reported,
Rasool, rasool, rasoolam, said, by Allah,
I seek forgiveness from Allah,
and I repent to him
more than 70 times in a day.
More than 70 times in a day.
As I mentioned last Friday,
Ramadan
is a time for reflection
and introspection.
A time
for not only in in,
incremental change,
but transformation.
A time for reorienting
ourselves
to Jannah.
A time to reset our goals and our
lives such that we that such that we
achieve those goals.
Let us not waste that
reward
The reward for following the sunnah of Rasool
Allah
and seeking forgiveness
is Allah
protection from punishment.
In Suratul Anfa, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala said,
but Allah will would never punish them while
you, O Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, were among
them.
Nor would he ever punish them if they
prayed for forgiveness,
as long as they keep seeking forgiveness.
Abu
Bakr reported
that Rasulullah said,
whoever
increases
his duas,
his prayers
for forgiveness, whoever increases is stefar.
Allah
will grant him relief
from every worry,
a way out from every hardship,
and provide for him in ways that he
does not expect.
And this is in
Sahih most in,
it's a Sahih Hadis in Muslath,
Ahmed.
It says a man complained to Hazar Al
Basri
about a drought.
And Hazar Al Basri
said to him, make us tuffah.
Ask Allah for forgiveness.
Another man came to him and complain complained
of poverty,
and he said, pray to Allah
for forgiveness.
Ask Allah to forgive you. Another man said
to him,
please make dua for me
to Allah
to bless me with a child.
And he said, you pray to Allah for
forgiveness.
And another complained to him that his garden
was dry. He had there was no land.
No no no,
irrigation in his, in his field, in his
garden.
And Hassan
said to him, pray to Allah
for forgiveness.
He was asked about this,
about why he
said the same thing, gave the same advice
to so many people.
And he said, this is not my opinion
because Allah
says in Surah
Allah
says,
ask for forgiveness from your wrath.
Verily, he is oft forgiving.
He will send rain to you in abundance
and give you an increase in wealth and
children and bestow on you gardens and bestow
on you rivers.
My brothers and sisters,
this is
the opportunity for us to transform our lives.
It's the opportunity
for us to get and gain the forgiveness
of all those who have another time. Let's
not waste that opportunity.
Let us use it
and maximize it and leverage it to ensure
that we
leave Ramadan
forgiven
for all that we did
with a way of life
that is a complete
transformation
and which puts us on the success
leading to the rida of Allah.
Ask Allah for forgiveness
and his mercy for all of us.